Colombian political leaders on Twitter during the Covid‐19 pandemic

Abstract

This study analyzes the use of Twitter by Colombian political elites during the Covid‐19 pandemic, employing qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques. We collected Twitter data on the Colombian president, the mayor of Bogota, and all the members of the Congress of Colombia. We then analyzed qualitatively the content of the most popular tweets sent by President Iván Duque, Mayor Claudia López, and Gustavo Petro, the leader of the opposition. We also analyzed the growth in the number of their followers during the pandemic. We found that the most popular tweets from Colombian opposition politicians were often related to criticism of the government. López also informed her constituency about the state of the capital. President Duque's most popular tweets were primarily informative. During the pandemic, all three politicians gained a significant number of Twitter followers.